Kindergarten
by Kurai-BabyDoll
Summary: Sam is nervous about her first day in Kindergarten, and her mother isn't helping the situation. And why does she feel strange when she meets a shy brunette, with a giraffe named...Mr.Purple? Puckentine
1. Cards, Mats, and Tears

**A/N: Alternate timeline, in which Sam and Cat ended up going to the same elementary school. This fic was inspired by the song "First Love - [music box version] Utada Hikaru" **

**Let me know if you want more! (WARNING: If this fic is continued for more chapters, it will not be fluff!) **

**Rating susceptible to change if later chapters are added. I do not own these characters.**

**Enjoy and review!**

Sam gripped the handle with the strength, of a girl her size, shouldn't possibly possess. Muffled, but audible and cheerful noises were emitting from the room just behind the barrier of the large wooden door, the only thing separating her and the beast that lie within. The young girl swallowed, and somehow tightened her grip on the handle of the door.

_~ "But mom, look see, other mommies are bringing their kids in. The kids aren't by themselves." Sam attempted to plead with her mother. The mother and daughter were still sitting in the beat up Hyundai Accent parked on the side of the dilapidated elementary school. Sam pushed her long, wavy blonde locks out of her face. Her mommy hadn't helped her with her hair this morning. Pam scoffed, seeing another one of those couples. "Nuh-uh, Sammy. You're a big girl. You gotta do this by yourself." Pam reached over across her daughter to clumsily shove open the passenger door._

_Sam scrunched up her face at the smell of alcohol on her mommy's breath. _

"_Go on, kid. Give 'em hell." Pam grinned at her daughter then hiccupped, tuning back to the steering wheel and shoving the key into the ignition. _

_The little blonde sighed, grabbing hold of her grey transformer's backpack, and dragged it along with her as she slid out of the car. She swung it onto on one shoulder, grasping on of the plush straps for dear life as she stomped into the school. Her eyes were stinging, but she refused to let the tears fall. No matter how she scared she was. Because Sam Puckett doesn't cry. _

She cringed as the rowdy cheers became harsher. Whatever lay ahead, she would need to face on her own, as she always did. She took the deepest breath her little lungs could hold, before swinging the heavy door open.

She was immediately greeted with a rush of annoyingly bright color. All along the walls, rainbows and stick figures of every size and race. Numbers and letters framed the lining of the walls, and there were a number of small chairs in one corner of the room, overrun by the large mat laid out in the middle of the room.

Sam observed all the parents being dragged along the colorful room by their enthusiastic kids, and others weeping for the children. She huffed. Adults weren't supposed to cry. That was dumb.

Sam continued ranting to herself until someone had tapped her on her shoulder, so gently that she wasn't even sure she felt it. She turned, her tiny fists curled and obviously annoyed. She was planning to tell whoever was messing with her to go away, but instead she just stared. Facing her was a girl about the same size as her, the girl's deep chocolate eyes nervous as she looked down, long eyelashes nearly covering them. Her light brunette locks fell past her shoulders down to her elbows with loose curls at the ends, contrasting her flowery pink dress. Sam's eyebrows raised, the girl's rosy cheeks just adding to her overly-sweet exterior. Sam scowled, feeling a pang in her chest she didn't understand, and thus didn't enjoy.

"What?" Sam snapped, making the girl fall back a step and flutter her eyelashes in fear.

"Uh…" the brunette began to mumble, and pointed down at the blonde's shoes, navy blue converse which were heavily worn.

Sam's eyes followed the girl's finger, realizing that something was plush and purple under her shoe. She stepped off it, figuring the girl wanted it. Sam's shoe revealed that she had been stepping on the neck of some kind of giraffe. The brunette bent down, scooping up the plush animal into her arms and hugged it to her. She smiled as she gave the purple animal a squeeze, a single dimple showing on her left cheek. Sam felt another pang in her chest.

"Mr. Purple says thank you for not killing him." The brunette said in a voice as light as air.

Sam swallowed, looking away and crossing her arms. "Take better care of him next time." As soon as she turned back, the girl was gone. She opened her mouth to call out to her, not really knowing why. But she was stopped when a new, much older face appeared in front of her.

"Hi there, sweetie." The woman cheered. "What's your name?"

"Sam." She said shortly, recognizing the woman as the teacher.

"Alrighty then! Just have your mommy or daddy sign what's on that sheet over there, ok?" The lady pointed to a corner of the classroom in which parents were lining up to scribble on a paper atop a desk.

Sam looked away pointedly, crossing her arms again. "They couldn't come. They had stuff." Sam said as casually as she could, but knew her voice wavered a bit.

The teacher's eyes widened slightly, never having heard of a student's parent not coming to see the child off for their first day. Heck, some parents stayed to see their child off for the first _week_! She looked unsure of what to say as the little blonde stared up at her. "Well," she sighed. "That's ok. They can sign next time."

Sam knew the slip would never be signed.

After quite a bit of grieving from parents, and some even insisting to stay, the children were appointed to pick a spot on the mat for a temporary seating assignment.

Sam looked around at all the kids surrounding her, swarming to claim a pretty color on the mat or to sit as close as possible to new friends. Sam shrugged, a picked a nice spot in the back corner of the mat, nearest to the door unless she needed to make a quick escape. No other students sat particularly close to her, to which she was grateful for, then scowled then the teacher beckoned the class to come closer together. She grudgingly scooted forward, bumping into a dark brown-haired boy who wasn't paying attention. He turned to face the bumper and was greeted by a glare of hatred from Sam. He immediately moved. Sam scoffed, ending up sitting next to a curly ginger and a small blonde boy.

"Ooo, you got a pretty color!"

"Yeah but you got green. That color is cool!"

Sam listened to the other kids discuss the color they were seated on. Sam looked down, noticing she was on 'brown'. She shrugged. She liked brown. It was the color of mud pies and her favorite kind of chocolate. And pretty eyes…she shook her head. '_Where did that come from?'_

She dismissed the thought, picking at her small callused hands as the teacher rambled on, something about a rabbit and a turtle...

A light tug on her hair brought her back to attention. She turned her torso around aggressively, swatting away at whatever was touching her hair. She was greeted by a nervous giggle and familiar big dark chocolate eyes…

"Sorry." The girl answered, pulling back her small hands from the blonde's hair. "Your hair is so pretty…"

Sam could feel herself growing hot, and she furiously clutched at a lock of her own blonde waves. "Cut it out." She whispered roughly, not wanting to alert the teacher.

"I'm really sorry." The girl's eyes widened and flashed a hint of sadness before she began fiddling with her own hair. Sam looked down at the purple mass tucked underneath the girl's arm.

'_She still has that dumb giraffe? She probably brought it to school.' _She thought, then rolled her eyes. _'What was its name? Mr. something?' _she must have said the last bit out loud because the girl answered her.

"It's Mr. Purple, silly. Not Mr. Something." She smiled again, the dimple showing up.

Sam opened her mouth to say something but a parental tone cut off her words.

"Caterina. It's not polite to talk when others are talking." The teacher snapped at the brunette. Sam hadn't even turned to face the teacher yet, when she saw the girl's large brown eyes widen even further, tears brimming them and glare out her usual light.

Sam wasn't sure why she felt anger towards the teacher bubble up inside of her. The girl _had_ been talking. She watched the girl in front of her repeatedly open and close her mouth, unsure of what to say.

"Go and change your green card to yellow, Catarina." The teacher commanded, pointing to a large board on the back of the room, with every kid's name printed below a green card. If the child misbehaved, they received a yellow warning. If the action is repeated, the card is changed to red. Most of the cards had remained green, save for a few children who were acting rowdy before the class had even begun.

Catarina nodded softly, head down in an effort to hide the tears threatening to spill. She was just beginning to rise when Sam shot up.

"I was talking, Miss Hatter. Not..ah-…" she stumbled, at a loss for the pronunciation of the girl's name. "Cat." It was all she could remember.

Miss Hatter looked unsure for a moment before nodding. She pointed at the board on the wall again. "Alright then. Green to Yellow for your card."

Sam nodded, walking over to the board and placed a yellow card over her green one. She looked over her shoulder, assuring that the teacher wasn't looking before making sure that a few other kids' cards got changed too. She returned to her spot on the mat, flicking her bangs out of her face before turning her smirk at the teacher for the rest of class.

Cat stayed silent behind her.

~  
The children were let out for a brief recess. They were given small snacks to enjoy on the playground, so long as they returned all trash to the bins outside of the classroom. Sam was all too happy to indulge in the perks to school, and soon began to ask other kids for their share of snacks after she had finished her own. If they failed to oblige, she would have to 'talk' to them about sharing.

Sam climbed atop a large metal playground dome in the middle of the playground and sat on the top portion, scaring off anyone who tried to play with her. She scanned the playground from atop her castle, spotting a dot of pink from across the sand. Cat was singing, (well, more like sitting) on the swings, Mr. Purple lying in the sand a few feet away from her. The brunette felt eyes on her and looked up, chocolate meeting ice for the third time that day.

Sam tore her eyes away, scoffing and letting herself fall through one of the gaps in the structure, her legs hooking onto one of the horizontal bars as she hung upside down. She closed her eyes, letting the blood rush to her head. She sighed, swinging gently. A moment later and she could hear light footsteps approaching her; a she chose to ignore them. But a moment later, and she felt something extremely soft and warm pressed against her lips.

Her eyes snapped open, getting a flash of long eyelashes and rosy cheeks before her legs slipped from the position on the metal and she cam toppling down. "Ow!" she exclaimed after landing in the sand below her, rubbing her head furiously. Her crystal blue eyes looked up at none other than Cat from her position on the ground.

For once, Sam Puckett was at a loss for words. "Wha-?! Why- you, Why would you-?"

The brunette above her looked a bit surprised at the blonde's reaction. "Are you ok, Samantha?" Her eyes widened a tad. "Is your noggin ok?" she asked innocently, not masked by any ulterior motive.

_That_ pissed Sam off. She balled her fists and stood, brushing off a bit of dirt from her jeans as she did so. "Why-…Why would you heckin' kiss me?!" She raged, but cooled down a tad when the saw Cat cringe.

Cat shrugged innocently. "I wanted to thank you for saving my card this morning…" she blushed a bit and smiled, the happiness touching her eyes. "And whenever my mommy wants to thank my daddy, she gives him a special kiss." Cat nodded matter-o- factly, then tilted her head curiously. "But, daddy never has your reaction. He always kisses mommy right back." Suddenly, her expression turned worrisome.

'_Was this girl bipolar?_' Sam thought inwardly.

"Did I not do a good job? Sh-should I try again?" Cat blinked rapidly.

Sam's blue orbs widened, feeling her pale face grow hot. "N-no! It's not that, it's just…" she glanced at the brunette staring at her intently. "…that's only for mommies and daddies. We're too small. And…" she felt herself swallow.

"It's only for mommies and daddies." She repeated a bit quieter this time. "Not mommies and mommies."

Cat tilted her head again, a lock of her hair falling into her face.

Sam had to fight her hand from reaching up to tuck it behind Cat's ear. _'Bad hand.'_

Cat blinked slowly, grasping at her dress during her thought process. "Oh…but, we aren't mommies." Cat grinned. "So that makes it ok, right?"

Sam opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. _Cat did have a point._ Sam nodded. "Yeah, I think so." She sighed, brushing off another bit of dirt from her ripped jeans. She looked up, realizing they were both inside the dome and other kids had begun to climb onto it. Without _their_ permission. Sam realized that she had to act fast, so she turned to Cat, reaching out to grip her small forearms. "Cat, listen. This is my castle, cause I'm the King, which means those kids aren't supposed to be on it." She pointed to the kids above them. Sam sighed again. "But I can't defend it all by myself, so…" Sam managed a small smile at the girl. "Wanna be my Queen?"

Cat blinked, registering the question.

Suddenly, Cat threw herself at Sam, wrapping her small arms around the blonde's waist and laughing. "Yep!" she giggled again, snuggling into Sam's chest. "But we can both be Queens."

Sam blushed as soon as the girl had rushed at her. Cat was hugging her! Nobody was allowed to hug Sam Puckett, but...Cat smelled like candy. And candy was nice, so it was ok this time. Sam grinned at the brunette's answer, and she nodded when Cat let go of her. "Ok, cool." It had been a while since Sam had truly smiled. She hadn't smiled since her mommy began giving her 'punishments' again… But here she was, grinning at this girly-girl brunette like she was the light in her little life.

Sam glanced up at the kids who were climbing further up the dome, and balled her fists to place them on her hips. "Now." She held out her right hand towards Cat, who took it with a smile. "Let's get these kids off our castle!"

And with that, the two little Queens took off, hand in hand, ready for battle to protect their kingdom.

**~A/N: Let me know if you want to continue this fic. I know it seemed like major sugar-gargling fluff, but trust me, (knowing me), this will get very dark very fast. Anyone catch the subtle hints of angst in here? :D If I do continue and you don't enjoy Dark!Fics, then you can conclude that this chapter is the ending to the fic. Your choice, my lovelies. Please review!**

**(Oh, and about the whole 'card' thing, I remembered that in my kindergarten we did the same thing. This girl got me in trouble when I did nothing wrong, and I remember feeling super upset about changing my card to yellow. It seemed so important then, haha!)**


	2. Nighttime Rain

**A/N: Hehehe see what I meant when I said it would get 'dark' fairly quickly? Ha, puns. **

**But seriously, this will eventually turn into angst. But, do not fret. I have everything sorted out already. Kinda. Meh. **

**Enjoy! **

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"Sammy! I'll be back in the morning, ok? Call the pizza man if you want some dinner or somethin'!

A slam echoed downstairs, signaling the departure of the little girl's mother from their small apartment.

It seemed nothing else was bothering to make noise in the entire apartment building at the moment- the little blonde could hear her own breathing as if she were the only person alive. The thought scared her a bit…but not that much of course. Sam Puckett didn't get scared. Not even when she secretly watched that scary movie that her mommy put on when she had a boyfriend over.

Sam had to admit, she did have to check her closet for a week after that, but that passed when she realized that scary monsters evidently, were scared of the dark. At least, that's what her Auntie told her. And it appeared to be true for the most part; whenever Sam peeked into the dark closet to check for any monsters, there weren't any.

That being said, she still closed her closet door every night before going to bed.

Sam glanced at the small digital clock on her bedside counter; it read 8…um… she didn't quite know the other number. She couldn't count that high just yet. As an alternative, she stood, dropping her G.I. Joe _action figure_, (not a doll) in the process and leaped over to her window. It took her two entire jumps to reach quite close to the closed window- a new record for her. Sam nodded in satisfaction. This meant that her legs were getting longer, (her previous record was three) and that she would be taller soon.

With a change in confidence, she strut the rest of the way towards the window and then tugged on the shutters' string to open them. It took her a few times, as she wasn't very practiced with shutters; her mommy had recently removed her curtains, saying that shutters cost less and didn't catch as much dust. Sam didn't understand how an immovable object could 'catch' dust. She could move, but she still couldn't catch dust.

"They must have been pretty smart curtains, then." She mumbled with a small nod, suddenly missing her old curtains.

She pressed against the glass, small hands cupping around her eyes as she leaned in closer to better see though the window glare. It was quite dark outside, obviously, which meant that her mommy wouldn't come back until the sun rose again. Sam had once asked where her mommy went during nighttime, who then told her that she shouldn't ask adults 'stupid questions'. And that was all the response Sam had received from her apparently stupid question.

The little blonde sighed, stepping away from the window and scratching the back of her head. She was bored; extremely in fact, and a bored Samantha Puckett meant a troublemaking Samantha Puckett. Or so her uncle had once said.

She ran over to her door, and grabbed her same navy blue Converse that were on the carpet beside it. She plopped down onto the ground and began tugging her shoes on. After fiddling with the laces for a moment, she decided against tying her shoes. If she tied them wrong again, they would end up in a jumble of cotton knots that her mommy wouldn't be too ecstatic to untangle for her.

The little blonde stood with a small hop, then pulled her door open before heading downstairs.

Sam liked nighttime. Contrast to the sky, the city was always lit with different colored lights, and even though it was dark, the people still liked to walk around the streets to drink coffee or to go to "clubs".

Whatever that meant.

Sam tucked her hands into her jeans as she exited her apartment complex, feeling for a few dollars she had brought with her to buy something at the convenience store. She knew exactly what she wanted, because it was the newest craze, so naturally everyone wanted one. A FatCake.

Once she had seen a program on TV, with a very boring-looking spokesperson who was talking about FatCakes. Naturally she was interested as soon as she had caught wind of the pink fatty goodness, but the spokesperson was using really big words like, "Unsaturated" fats, or, extreme risk for "diabetes". She didn't understand quite well about that they were saying, but she was pretty sure that they were talking bad about FatCakes. And that made her _very_ mad.

Sam huffed, stepping off the curb with all the other people as they crossed the street. She felt a gentle pat on her shoulder as she was walking, and soon a woman with small glasses and her dark brown hair in a bun was leaning down next to her while walking.

Sam raised an eyebrow at the woman, who looked quite concerned.

"Hi there, sweetie. Did you lose your mommy?" the lady asked the little blonde.

Sam scowled at the lady, shrugging off her hand that was still on her shoulder. She responded with a short "No.", before hurrying her pace slightly to get to the other side of the street before the lady could follow her.

The little blonde let out a long breath when she reached the convenience store. Whenever she went out by herself, people were always asking her if she was lost or someone had left her alone. She knew she stood out, or she didn't, rather because of her shortness, but there were lots of concerned eyes out for a little girl in the middle of Los Angeles.

Technically, of course, Sam wasn't allowed to leave the apartment without her mom or another adult. But the little blonde had always been left alone at night for as long as she could remember. And she couldn't stand the silence of the apartment. It was too quiet, and it made her think about things … that she didn't want to think about.

So, she had taken to leaving for one of the main centers of the city, L.A LIVE, because it was quite a short walk from her home and vice versa. Hey_, it was better than sitting in the dark by herself_. At least now, she was in the dark with everyone else.

.

.

"Sammmmmmyyy! I'm homeee…!"

A distant slam.

Sam woke with a start, sitting up in her bed and panting. Once she calmed, she let out a heavy sigh, mopping at her forehead with her sleeve. Her bad dream had turned so vivid that she had begun sweating whilst asleep. She made to get out of bed, and heard a soft crinkle sounding vaguely of plastic. She tossed her sheets aside, revealing three FatCake rappers scattered on her bed.

They had probably induced the nightmare.

She really needed to stop eating FatCakes…but that wasn't going to happen.

The blonde scooted over to the edge of her bed and hopped down, not bothering to use the small stepping stool just beside her. She was feeling _just that_ daring today.

Today would be her second day of school. And that means more recess snacks. For her and _Cat._

Sam shook her head when she felt a small flutter in her tummy. She was only exited because of the snacks. _Yes, that was it._

She went into the bathroom and stood on the stepping stool in front of the sink, (ok, so maybe she wasn't _that_ daring today) and turned the tap to run before cupping a small amount of water in her hands and splashing it on her face. She coughed as the water went up her nose.

Those dumb commercial girls with the water made it look so easy.

"Sammy! You ready? Come on, I don't have all day, I gotta' go get some stuff done!" Pam yelled to her daughter who was still upstairs.

Sam was just pulling a green dinosaur t-shirt onto her head when she heard her mom calling. The little blonde winced. Her mommy sounded angry. That was not good.

Whenever Sam's mother went out for the night, she would always come back quite intoxicated. This only meant one of two things-she was either a happy-drunk or an angry-drunk.

Sam didn't want to think about what happened last time when her mommy was angry-drunk.

She pulled on her shoes, and to save time, tucked the laces into the sides of the shoes before grabbing her backpack and running downstairs.

Sam sat in the car, taking extra care to be quiet as her mommy drove. She stared out of the window. Tiny droplets of rain had begun spattering across the window, and she traced the streaks with the tips of her fingers.

"God dammit. I just washed the fuckin' car.", Sam heard her mommy mumbled angrily. Sam could understand-she didn't like the rain much either. It was sad, and it made the pretty daytime sky almost like nighttime. She then scowled at the drops on the window.

The car was quiet for a while after that. That is, until her mom spoke again.

"Hey Sammy. What took ya' so long today, hm?" her mother asked.

Sam shrugged. She really didn't take that long, but she knew it was only the alcohol talking for her mommy now. Sam felt her mom glance over at her.

"You brushed your hair today." There was venom in the woman's tone as she turned to her daughter. "You tryin' to impress someone?" Pure venom now.

Sam swallowed, but shook her head firmly.

Pam scoffed. "Don't even try, Sammy. No one's ever gonna like you back. You're tough, not soft and sweet. Men don't want tough girls 'cause they can't handle them. No one is ever going to like you."

The little blonde shrunk in her seat, wanting nothing more to than to cover her ears at her mother's words. They were just words, but they hurt.

Because…they were probably the truth.

They pulled up to the front of the elementary, and Sam nearly jumped out of the car. She couldn't stand being in that small space with her mommy anymore. She slammed the door behind her and stomped off into the school, a big scowl on her face. She knew what she was doing, of course, but she couldn't stop herself.

She was trying to turn her sadness into anger.

.

.

Cat wasn't at school.

The fact made Sam's heart drop like a rock. It wasn't like she was looking forward to seeing the brunette or anything, though. So she didn't care. Not at all.

…she grit her teeth as tears formed in her eyes.

.

.

Finally, it was recess, the only possible thing that could get Sam's head back into place was there. Food.

She strode up to the snack table and snatched her own portion, before sitting down at one of the small tables by herself. A few girls came up to her with big, smiling faces and a jump rope, and Sam snarled at them. They went away. A boy came up to her with a basketball who offered her a game. She yelled in his face.

It seemed like the entire world didn't want her. Thankfully, the rain had thinned out enough that the teachers let all the kids play on the playground again. As soon as the announcement had been made, Sam took off to the one place that she could control, the one place that was hers; the castle.

She began climbing the metal dome, so deep in her thoughts that she nearly lost her footing on the way up. Thankfully she was quick enough to catch herself before falling all the way down, but she slammed her shin onto one of the bars. She grimaced, looking down but not able to see the hit beneath her jeans, so she continued up.

The little blonde sat at the very top of her castle, feeling quite alone. She pulled her knees up to her chest, and pressed her forehead against her upraised knees.

_Stupid apartment, stupid mom, stupid school, stupid rain; stupid stupid stupid! _Sam sniffled, though she refused to cry. She would not cry. _Because Sam P-Puckett d-doesn't…_ she sniffled again.

"What are you doing by yourself, silly?"

Sam's head shot up, just before a tear nearly spilled. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision. Her heart thumped quite loudly in her chest at the sight.

Cat was standing at the bottom of the dome, her hand shielding her eyes from the rain as she smiled up at the blonde at the top of the dome.

Sam's eyes widened. _Cat. _She mouthed the word, but no sound came out. She quickly climbed down the dome then jumped the last few feet down, landing in front of the brunette, _who looked just as pretty as she did yesterday… _

"Why weren't you here in the morning?" Sam nearly yelled, but the question was more out of relief than anger.

Cat smiled shyly. "My daddy's car broke down 'cause of the rain. So we got here a little late." Cat's voice was just as soft and airy as it always was. Cat tilted her head, noticing that Sam's pretty blue eyes were kind of shiny, like she was going to cry or something. Well, that simply wouldn't do.

Cat rushed forward, wrapping her arms around the blonde and squeezing tight. She didn't let go as she spoke. "I'm sorry I wasn't here. You must have been all lonely."

Sam felt her tummy flutter again as Cat hugged her. But outwardly, she scoffed. "There you are, kid. For a second there I thought you left me to defend the kingdom by myself."

Cat laughed and let go of Sam, shaking her head and making the chocolate curls bounce. "I wouldn't leave you, Sam! Never ever." She made a crossing sign over her heart to seal her words.

"Ok, got it. But we gotta' talk about the whole hugging thing." Sam huffed, smoothening out the dinosaur on her t-shirt then looked up at Cat.

The brunette was staring at her with her full attention, and then she gave a small nod for Sam to continue.

Sam opened her mouth to speak for a moment, before it closed and formed a small smile. She sighed. "I guess we can talk about it later."

Cat nodded, and then giggled.

Sam grabbed Cat's hand and pulled her up, though it was without much struggle. They stood at the top of the castle, Cat grabbing onto Sam's forearm to keep from falling. They tilted their heads back with closed eyes, letting the tiny droplets fall into their mouths and giggled when others fell on their faces. Maybe today would turn around after all.

Now the rain didn't make Sam feel so sad anymore.

.

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**A/N: Shall I continue? ;)**

**Please review!**

**(P.S. Sorry about the angsty-ness, but I tried to make up for it with the bit of hurt/comfort at the end:3)**


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